Tajikistan in 2006

Area:

143,100 sq km (55,300 sq mi)

Population

(2006 est.): 7,063,000

Capital:

Dushanbe

Chief of state:

President Imomali Rakhmonov

Head of government:

Prime Minister Akil Akilov

Issues of economic development and preparations for the presidential election on Nov. 6, 2006, dominated public life in Tajikistan throughout the year. In January, Pres. Imomali Rakhmonov ordered the government to accelerate strategic economic projects, especially the construction of hydropower plants and the building of roads. Construction proceeded on two large hydropower installations on the Vakhsh River, but a disagreement between the Tajik government and the main investor, the Russian aluminum giant RUSAL, over the height of the dam at Rogun held up the most important of the planned projects. This concrete-making plant was all that remained of grandiose plans for a hydroelectric plant at Rogun, Tajikistan, which was abandoned upon the breakup of the U.S.S.R. in 1991. The government sought to accelerate the project in 2006.APIn mid-March the International Monetary Fund confirmed its write-off of $99 million of Tajikistan’s external debt, but IMF officials were soon expressing concern that the Tajik government was again borrowing heavily to finance road construction and a power-transmission line.

In February a Russian publication noted that Tajikistan had the lowest average wage rate of any country in the former U.S.S.R.—the equivalent of $28 per month. Lack of employment opportunity at home drove hundreds of thousands of men of working age—possibly a million or more—to go abroad, mostly to Russia, to find work. Some officials at the local level complained that the government’s emphasis on large-scale economic projects would do little to create large numbers of desperately needed jobs. While encouragement of small business was officially part of the government’s development strategy, small-business entrepreneurs reported that high taxes and corruption remained serious hindrances to development. In May a law sharply limiting the permissible number of inspections of businesses by state agencies was adopted, but its effects had yet to be felt by year’s end.

President Rakhmonov was reelected in November with 79.3% of the vote. He was seen by most citizens as the guarantor of political stability and the man who held the best promise for economic improvement. The largest of the opposition parties, the Islamic Rebirth Party, chose not to field a presidential candidate after longtime party head Said Abdullo Nuri died in August. Although four other opposition parties did nominate candidates, the groups were far too small to pose a credible challenge to Rakhmonov. After the Central Electoral Commission allowed a splinter group of the Democratic Party to register a candidate, the main branch of the party decided that it would boycott the election.

Law-enforcement officials repeatedly expressed concern that extremist groups, particularly the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Hizb ut-Tahrir, were becoming more active and more violent in 2006. The latter group was reported to be increasingly successful in recruiting women.